The Night After: LaPoint, Yankees Rebound

By MICHAEL MARTINEZ

Published: June 7, 1989

The two of them stood on the grass in front of the visitors' dugout the other day in Milwaukee and worked on mechanics. When Billy Connors spoke, Dave LaPoint listened attentively, not knowing whether the discussion would reap benefits or offer little help.

It helped. Last night LaPoint rebounded from a prolonged tailspin, pitching seven shutout innings and putting the Yankees in position for a 4-0 victory over the first-place Baltimore Orioles at the Stadium.

Connors, the Yankee pitching coach, had spotted a flaw in LaPoint's delivery last Sunday that had apparently been putting an excessive strain on the left-hander's shoulder. They spent 10 minutes on the side in the late morning, and it helped produce LaPoint's first victory since May 9 and the team's first shutout since April 23.

''I went from not knowing if I'd make my next start to throwing with no pain at all,'' LaPoint said. Asked how much credit he gave to Connors, he said, ''All of it.''

The victory, accomplished with help from home runs by Don Mattingly, Ken Phelps and Mel Hall, ended an eight-game winning streak by the Orioles.

''LaPoint gave us what we needed,'' said Manager Dallas Green. ''A less-than-tense game with few runners on base.''

The Yankees clearly had to recover from Monday's six-error, 16-3 loss to Baltimore, and they did it neatly. LaPoint and Dave Righetti, who got the final six outs, gave up six hits and allowed as many as two runners on base just once.

And yet there remains a Jekyll-and-Hyde nature to the Yankees, who have not won consecutive games in three weeks.

''We've been playing off and on for three or four weeks now,'' said Mattingly, who has 4 home runs in his last 29 games after none in his first 24. ''I don't think it's so much that we tried to bounce back as it is that we need to just get going.''

It was important for LaPoint, too, because of his early season trials: an 0-1 start, a 5-0 recovery from the middle of April until early May, then an 0-3 slump since May 20, during which he surrendered 12 earned runs and 10 walks in 15Z innings.

If there was a problem, it seemed to be in his motion. LaPoint and Connors spent the weekend examining the left-hander's windup, finally deciding that LaPoint was dropping his arm too close to his body rather than away from it. The motion, LaPoint said, was placing pressure on his shoulder, causing stiffness that had forced him out of his last start after three and a third innings.

''He's always had good control,'' Connors said, ''but I could see that he was having trouble getting the ball down. I asked him to try something, and it worked. Warming up, he said he had no pain at all.''

LaPoint retired 12 of the first 13 batters he faced, took a one-hitter into the sixth inning and allowed only one base runner as far as third.

''There were different checkpoints that I had to follow along the way,'' he said, ''but after two innings, it became natural.''

He was supplied with enough runs in the first when Mattingly connected to right off Dave Schmidt, the Orioles' starter. Hall followed with a single and Phelps drove a pitch to right for a two-run homer. It was Phelps's first home run since April 21. Kelly May Return

Roberto Kelly, who has been on the disabled list since May 26 with a sprained left wrist, was given permission to begin hitting. He could be activated Saturday against Boston. If he is, the likelihood is that Deion Sanders, the rookie with football in his future, will be returned to the minors.